Where Are Python Packages Installed

1. Use the pip Command to List the Packages Installed
2. Use the conda Command to List the Locally Installed Packages
3. Use the python Command to List the Packages Installed
4. Use the distutils.sysconfig Module to List the Packages Installed
5. Use the sysconfig Module to List the Packages Installed

A package in Python can be defined as a directory that contains Python files. These files are usually Python Modules.

As the program grows larger and gets more complex, similar modules are positioned in a package, which helps in making the program easier to manage and have better readability. This approach is often called Modular Programming, and packages help in achieving it.

The file __init__.py must be contained inside the directory in order for Python to consider it as a Package. This file usually has the initialization code for the package, but it can be left empty.

This tutorial will discuss different methods to find the directories in which python packages are installed.

Use the pip Command to List the Packages Installed

In Python, the packages can be installed both globally and locally.

A package, when installed globally, is available to all the users in the system. The same package, when installed locally, would only be available to the user that manually installed it.

By default, the pip command installs the packages globally.

The following code uses the pip command to list the packages installed globally.

# we can also use "pip list command"
pip freeze

Although, by default, the pip command installs packages globally, the packages that have been manually installed locally can also be seen using this command.

The following code uses the pip command to list the packages installed locally.

# we can also use "pip list --user"
pip freeze --user

Use the conda Command to List the Locally Installed Packages

This method works only for programmers working on Anaconda IDE. It is possible to list the locally installed package in a conda environment. To execute this, we just have to write a single line of code in the Anaconda prompt.

The following code uses conda to list the packages installed locally.

conda list

Use the python Command to List the Packages Installed

The python command can be used to find the package-site directories.

Global Site Packages

The global site packages are found to be listed in sys.path.

The following code uses the python command to list the globally installed packages.

python -m site

The site module can also be used along with the python command to get a better and more concise list of packages. This method uses the getsitepackages() from the site module.

The following code uses the python command along with the site module to list the globally installed packages.

python -c 'import site; print(site.getsitepackages())'

Note that the getsitepackages() function is not available with virtualenv.

Locally Installed Packages

The local packages are installed in the per-user site-packages directory (PEP 370).

The following code uses the python command to list the locally installed packages.

python -m site --user-site

Use the distutils.sysconfig Module to List the Packages Installed

The distutils package can be utilized to provide functions for installing and building additional modules into a Python installation. In this case, it can be used to list the packages as well.

The following code uses the distutils.sysconfig to list the globally installed packages.

python -c "from distutils.sysconfig import get_python_lib; print(get_python_lib())"

The only drawback is that it points us to the directory of the dist-packages or the packages automatically installed by the Operating System.

Use the sysconfig Module to List the Packages Installed

In Python 3 and above, the sysconfig module is available to use for listing the packages installed.

The sysconfig module isn’t to be mistaken with the distutils.sysconfig submodule that was mentioned above. The latter is an altogether different module and it’s deficient in the get_paths function that will be used here.

The following code uses the sysconfig module to list the installed packages.

python -c "import sysconfig; print(sysconfig.get_path('purelib'))"

We use the purelib path here, which is where the standard Python packages are installed, with the help of tools like pip.